Happy Birthday to My “Third Son”

Today is the 18th birthday of Chase, who I consider to be my “third son.” Not biologically, of course. But definitely a part of our family for almost 12 years.

Chase lives around the corner from us in our subdivision. When I saw that he was going to be in the #1 son’s kindergarten class (it was half-days back then), I called his mom and suggested that we get the boys together to play, so they would see a friendly face on the first day.

Chase, Big Ben, and #1 on the second-grade field trip.

Since that fateful August day, Chase and #1 have been BFFs. Of course, as in all relationships, they’ve had their moments when they’ve needed time away from each other; the longest stretch was about six months when they were 13. Otherwise, they’ve been great friends.

Sidebar: The Mister tells me that guys are not “BFFs”; that’s just a girl thing. But to me, “best friends forever” is a great description for females and males. Go get your own blog and champion your cause there, Mister!

#1 and Chase in fourth grade

I often consider Chase to be my smartest son, because he is truly gifted and talented in every sense of those words. Not only is he extremely smart in math (780 out of 800 on the SAT) and science, but he’s also good in English (660 on the SAT). He excels in music, being in the high school marching band and orchestra, and he also has a knack for art. He’s on the high school’s math and computer science teams (no cheerleaders involved, though).

Chase and #1 at the fifth-grade picnic

The BFF does have a tendency to become impatient with the mere mortals who comprise his second family. But we treat him like one of our own and are proud of all he’s accomplished. Even though Chase and the #1 son are destined to go to different colleges, I definitely think that they’re going to work together somewhere down the road. They write electronic music and produce silly videos together; I can see Chase developing a video game, and he and #1 writing the music for it.

Playing on their Nintendo DS game systems

Looks like my third son will continue to be a part of our family for years to come. I sure hope so! Happy 18th birthday, Chase: That’s just ’cause how cool you are!